How to Search for a Word or Phrase on a Web Page on the iPad and iPhone –

In the past I’ve done several posts here on various keyboard shortcuts. You can find them by doing a search or click on SHORTCUTS here to get a page with links to posts on this blog.

One of the most useful shortcuts is one I rarely remembered until recently. That is “Find” – Control>f (on Windows); Command>f on the Mac the easy way to search for a word or phrase on a web page, in a Word document and/or even in an email post.

Since so many people are using iPads, I went on a search to see if individual web pages could also be searched for specific words or phrases when using the iPad. I was excited to learn that, in fact, Safari web pages do have a search function within them.

Following is what I discovered (from the Tutorial that I plan to include in my upcoming book with Interviews with Seniors Using iPads):

STEPS:
1 – Tap the URL to highlight it. You may need to do a “select all” and “cut.”

2 – Then type your search word or phrase in that space. For this example I typed “recording.”

3 – The search gives options to go to various web pages AND as you go down the page you’ll see an “On This Page” option, with “Find “[your search word or phrase]”. To the right you will see either “no matches” or the number of matches.

4 – Simply tap on “Find….” and you will be back on the page with all of the words or phrases for which you searched highlighted.

5 – Note: At the bottom of the page, on the left, there are brackets, < >, and a notation on the number of matches found. You can either scroll down the page to look for other highlight OR tap a “move right” or “move left” symbol to be take to the next or previous word or phrase.

6 – Note also: In the box on the right the word or phrase for which you searched is in a search box. You can “x” out the work for which you searched and add a new one to continue your search on the page.

Continuing from here, I then checked my iPhone to see if, and how, we can do a search on individual web pages on the iPhone. What I found, follows:

How to do a Word Search on a Safari Web Page on the iPhoneInstructions are very similar to those for the iPad. The main difference is that there is not the added search option once you are back on the page.

3 – Then type in your search word or phrase. I used “treasure” for this page.

4 – The first results you will see are for web pages with that term or phrase. Do NOT tap “Return”. It will take you to the search for various sites.

5 – Move down to the “On This Page”. Tap on that which brings you back to the original page from which you started.

6 – Again, your searched for word or term is highlighted. Use the “move” symbols at the left on the bottom of the page to navigate through.

7 – Tapping on “Done” will remove all of the highlights.

8 – If you want to search for something else on the page, repeat the above process.

NOTE: To be inspired, learn how 30 seniors (from 67 to 101 years old) are using iPads or other electronic devices in my Amazon Kindle book REAL SENIORS USING IPADS. To read the 20 plus 5 Star reviews and see inside the book, click or tap on REAL SENIORS USING IPADS

Your comments and experiences are always welcome in the “Leave a Reply…..” section below.

Comments

How to Search for a Word or Phrase on a Web Page on the iPad and iPhone – — 5 Comments

It took me a bit to fully understand. At first I kept tapping on… On This Page and nothing happened. Then I read again and followed your Wonderful Instructions and finally was able to make it work for me! Thanks so much!!

I was frustrated that I could not (or, at least, always ‘thought’ I could not) do a ‘word find’ on my ipad. Previously,I waited until I had access to my Windows PC when I wanted to find something.
This morning I searched Google and came upon this extremely helpful site.
Thank you for the help Sheila.
These things are often ‘easy’ ……… but, “It’s only easy when you know how” !!
Appreciated.

Thanks so much, Keith, for sharing your story AND for the reminder. The other day, I think, I was wishing I could search a page on my iPhone and I had TOTALLY forgotten having worked it out for this post! 🙂 I doubt that I will forget it again, so great appreciation back to you!